Packaging of items into mailers or pouches is performed in vast quantities. For just one example, some conventional, commercial packaging machines receive a web from a roll of film, feed it downwardly, and fold the web along its vertical center to form a pair of opposing sidewalls. A horizontal sealing jaw forms a bottom seam. The vertical sidewalls and bottom seam form part of a cavity for receiving one or more items for packaging. Typically, a person inserts the one or more items, along with whatever identifying or packaging information is appropriate, into the cavity. Conventional packaging machines typically have a light curtain such that a control system locks out the machine until the person's hands are clear from the machine.
Then, a servo motor of the machine advances the web a predetermined distance below the horizontal jaws. A pair of vertical front-sealing jaws engage the front edges of the web sidewalls and the horizontal sealing jaw engages the top edges, across the sidewalls from the front edges to fold at the rear. Thus, the remaining two sides of the film are sealed to form a pouch. The horizontal jaw also cuts the film to free the pouch from the web, and the sealed package falls into a bin for further processing, packaging, and/or shipping.
Depending on the desired function, the web preferably is a multiplayer blend of co-extruded polyethylene film. For example, if the pouch is a mailer, the web may be a polyethylene film lined on the inside with bubble wrap, such as a 7/64″ bubble film. If the pouch is intended to be packaged inside another container, such as a box, then the web can be one or my plies of a film of any desired polymer.